Every set we cover, costed three ways, from the commons run to the full master set. Every figure is added up from price guide values read on October 18, 2026, not a number somebody typed into an article two years ago, and they get read again each night.
Read this first
Every card numbered up to the printed total, the ones that read 131/131 and below, is usually a small bill: $24 to $1,010 across these 29 sets. The money is all above that line, in the secret rares. Ascended Heroes is $146 as a base set and $4,313 as a master set. If you have been putting off completing a set because you assumed it ran to thousands, it is worth checking which half you actually want.
Three ways to finish
The word means three different things depending who is saying it, and the gap between them is most of the cost. Pick the one you actually want before you start buying.
$30.12 average per set
Every Common and Uncommon in the numbered set. This is the bulk, so it is nearly free to buy and nearly worthless to sell. A good first target: it is most of the card count and almost none of the money, and it teaches you how a checklist works.
$147 average per set
Every card numbered up to the printed total. This is what most people mean by completing a set, and it is the tier this page sorts by. It includes the rares and the double rares but stops before the secret rares, which is exactly where the price cliff is.
$1,401 average per set
Everything, secret rares included, and the subsets that come out of the same packs but are filed separately: Celebrations' Classic Collection, Crown Zenith's Galarian Gallery and Shining Fates' Shiny Vault. Several times the base set in every case, and in some sets a single card is more than a quarter of the bill on its own. Worth knowing that most master-set collectors also chase every reverse holo, which is a further tier again and not costed here.
All 29 sets
Sorted by base set, which is the tier most people are asking about. Every figure buys one copy of each card at its cheapest printing, at market, before shipping.
the base set what the secret rares add on top
| Set | Commons run | Base set | Master set | Priciest single card |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Bolt2025 | $1470 cards | $2486 cards | $3,137172 cards | Victini$595, 19% of the master set |
| White Flare2025 | $1770 cards | $2886 cards | $2,770173 cards | Victini$477, 17% of the master set |
| Paldean Fates2024 | $1465 cards | $3491 cards | $2,473245 cards | Mew ex$857, 35% of the master set |
| Shrouded Fable2024 | $1648 cards | $3864 cards | $77499 cards | Persian$63, 8% of the master set |
| Perfect Order2026 | $1868 cards | $4088 cards | $523124 cards | Mega Zygarde ex$100, 19% of the master set |
| Pitch Black2026 | $1963 cards | $4484 cards | $647120 cards | Mega Darkrai ex$152, 23% of the master set |
| Phantasmal Flames2025 | $2274 cards | $4594 cards | $1,090130 cards | Mega Charizard X ex$650, 60% of the master set |
| Chaos Rising2026 | $2364 cards | $4986 cards | $548122 cards | Mega Greninja ex$136, 25% of the master set |
| Scarlet & Violet2023 | $38165 cards | $59198 cards | $742258 cards | Gardevoir ex$66, 9% of the master set |
| Mega Evolution2025 | $36110 cards | $59132 cards | $1,394188 cards | Mega Lucario ex$193, 14% of the master set |
| Paradox Rift2023 | $29135 cards | $62182 cards | $1,109266 cards | Groudon$87, 8% of the master set |
| Stellar Crown2024 | $35110 cards | $69142 cards | $582175 cards | Squirtle$94, 16% of the master set |
| Paldea Evolved2023 | $36151 cards | $70193 cards | $1,693279 cards | Magikarp$297, 18% of the master set |
| Journey Together2025 | $40127 cards | $79159 cards | $457190 cards | Lillie's Clefairy ex$83, 18% of the master set |
| Surging Sparks2024 | $40149 cards | $92191 cards | $1,146252 cards | Pikachu ex$240, 21% of the master set |
| Obsidian Flames2023 | $53166 cards | $92197 cards | $474230 cards | Charizard ex$92, 19% of the master set |
| Shining Fates2021 | $831 cards | $9272 cards | $709195 cards | Charizard VMAX Shiny Vault$114, 16% of the master set |
| Destined Rivals2025 | $57147 cards | $94182 cards | $1,550244 cards | Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex$374, 24% of the master set |
| Twilight Masquerade2024 | $42131 cards | $95167 cards | $1,165226 cards | Greninja ex$260, 22% of the master set |
| Temporal Forces2024 | $35126 cards | $102162 cards | $1,124218 cards | Gastly$83, 7% of the master set |
| Prismatic Evolutions2025 | $2079 cards | $111131 cards | $3,948180 cards | Umbreon ex$1,085, 27% of the master set |
| Celebrations2021 | $00 cards | $11925 cards | $60550 cards | Charizard Classic Collection$160, 26% of the master set |
| 1512023 | $68128 cards | $135165 cards | $1,761207 cards | Charizard ex$342, 19% of the master set |
| Ascended Heroes2026 | $57153 cards | $146217 cards | $4,313295 cards | Mega Gengar ex$763, 18% of the master set |
| Pokémon GO2022 | $2742 cards | $21078 cards | $36688 cards | Mewtwo V$57, 16% of the master set |
| Crown Zenith2023 | $2171 cards | $236159 cards | $2,355230 cards | Giratina VSTAR Galarian Gallery$269, 11% of the master set |
| Rebel Clash2020 | $34101 cards | $302192 cards | $508209 cards | Boss's Orders (Giovanni)$52, 10% of the master set |
| Silver Tempest2022 | $30109 cards | $716195 cards | $899215 cards | Lugia V$426, 47% of the master set |
| Chilling Reign2021 | $2489 cards | $1,010198 cards | $1,777233 cards | Blaziken VMAX$280, 16% of the master set |
The one card problem
In 5 of these 29 sets, a single card is at least a quarter of the entire master-set bill. Completing those sets is not really a grind, it is one purchase with a long tail attached, and it is worth seeing that number before you decide the set is out of reach.
Card scans are TCGdex's, and each one is the card named beside it. TCGdex publishes one scan per card number, so a card counted here at its reverse holo price is still shown in the artwork both printings share.
Two different prices
Every figure above is a PriceCharting guide value, worked out from what copies have actually been selling for. There is a second number worth knowing: the cheapest copy listed right now. On the cards that make up a base set those two are miles apart, and on the cards that make up a master set they are almost the same.
The reason is that a three cent common's cheapest copy is a penny, while a $763 chase card's cheapest copy is close to what it sells for. So the money in a base set is not really in the cards, it is in getting 138 of them into one envelope. Chaos Rising is the extreme case: $49 at market against $2 in cheapest listings, a 28.3x gap.
We do not publish the cheapest-listing total as a set price, because it is not one. Those are single listings from 138 different sellers in unstated condition, so nobody can actually buy a set at that number. It is here to show you where the real cost sits, which is postage and patience rather than the cards.
Prices are pricecharting.com's price guide value for an ungraded copy, read October 18, 2026. A guide value is computed across the sales PriceCharting tracks, which is a wider set of venues than any one marketplace. 2 cards of the 5,396 priced here are not listed by PriceCharting and keep their TCGplayer market price via TCGdex instead. The cheapest-listing figures on this page are a different measurement from a different source: they are the lowest live TCGplayer listing via TCGdex, which is one seller's asking price rather than a guide value. Card counts are the published checklists. Totals are computed from those two things and nothing else: no estimates, no rounding up to a nicer number. No affiliate links, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy anything.
Buying the set one pack at a time instead? Pack prices by set is what a single pack costs today and Pokemon MSRP is what it is supposed to cost. The cards doing most of the damage to these totals are in the 100 most valuable raw cards, and is it worth grading? covers what happens to a chase card after you own it.
It depends enormously on the set. Across the 29 sets on this page the base set ranges from $24 for Black Bolt to $1,010 for Chilling Reign, buying every card as a single at the cheapest printing and before shipping. The master set, which adds the secret rares, is several times more: Ascended Heroes is $4,313.
Singles, almost always, and it is not close. A base set here averages $147 bought as singles. Opening enough packs to see every card in a set costs many times that, because packs repeat commons long before they finish the checklist. Packs are for the fun of opening them; singles are for finishing a set.
The base set is every card numbered up to the printed total, so a card that reads 131/131 is the last one. A master set adds everything numbered above that total, which is where the secret rares and most of the expensive chase cards live. That is why the two numbers are so far apart: in Phantasmal Flames a single card is 60% of the whole master-set bill.